10th Grade Humanities

General Highlights

Deep Dive into Malcolm X

  • Malcolm X courted the media avidly and took great pains to control his image. Nevertheless he was subject to sensational and inflammatory press. Students compared images and headlines to evaluate whether the media helped or hurt his cause of freedom.

Engaging with Media Literacy

  • Students engaged in deep discussion and reflection on what the media's responsibility to its consumers is and whether it is indeed "the most powerful entity on earth."

Co - Constructing definitions

  • I asked students to draw from their own experience to generate their own definitions of freedom. I used these definitions to prime them for investigating Malcolm X's definition of Freedom for Black Americans in his speech 'The Ballot and the Bullet'.

Projects

Media and Bias

During this 2 week mini- project I implemented as a substitute teacher, students grappled with the question of media and bias through the frame of Malcolm X's relationship with the media as he fought for the freedom of Black Americans. They engaged in daily discussions around how the concepts of freedom, the media and bias relate to their daily lives, closely listened to and read Malcolm X's speech 'The Ballot and the Bullet' and produced oral, written or visual arguments in answer to whether the engagement with the media helped or hurt the cause of freedom.